The Current - What may have caused the Air Canada crash at La Guardia

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

Two pilots died when an Air Canada Express jet crashed into a fire truck. Former air traffic controller Michael McCormick says more than one thing likely went wrong and investigators will look at everything from the weather to control tower staffing to communication.

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Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. It was supposed to be a routine landing. It ended with two pilots dead. We don't know yet what exactly went wrong when an Air Canada Express jet collided with a fire truck on the runway of New York's LaGuardia Airport, but an audio recording from the control tower gives us a glimpse into what was going on.

Air traffic controller gives the fire truck clearance to cross the runway, the same runway where the Air Canada plane is about to land. Then the controller tries to avert Daster. Stop, stop, stop, stop, truck on. Stop, stop, stop, truck one. Stop, truck one, stop. Disaster is precisely what unfolds.

The air Canada plane collides with the truck, shearing off part of the front of the aircraft. Here's passenger Jack Cabot, telling a reporter what unfolded on board. We went down for a regular landing, and we came in pretty hard. We immediately hit something, and it was just, chaos in there about five seconds later. We had come to a stop, but in that short period, I mean, everybody was hunked down and everybody's screaming. We didn't have any directions because

the pilot's cabinet didn't kind of destroyed. So somebody said, let's get the emergency exit and get the door in. Let's all jump out, and that's exactly what we did. While that happened, there was a scramble in the control tower to reroute landing aircraft. Is it runway close? Bill 2603. Go around. Runway heading 2000. Later, 2000 go around 026.203. Later, the air traffic controller tells another pilot that he can't take off. Frontier 4195. I got the word that we're going to be close for a little while. If you weren't prepared to return to the ramp, let me know.

Yeah, we got stuff in progress for that, man. That wasn't good to watch. Yeah, I know. I was here. I tried to reach out to my stuff. And we were dealing with an emergency earlier, and I messed up. No, man, you did the best you could. U.S. and Canadian authorities are investigating the deadly crash. Michael McCormick is a former air traffic controller. He was also head of air traffic control for New York, where LaGuardia is located. He now teaches at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.

Michael, good morning. Good morning. Thanks for having me. It's harrowing as somebody who flies to listen to that audio from the control tower. What goes through your mind as you hear that exchange between the pilot and the control When I listen to the voice recording of the tragic event out of the Gaudium, I put myself in the position of that air traffic controller and I can feel and understand his urgency, his frustration, and his devastation after an event like yesterday or two days ago. Can you walk us through?

And again, those are just snippets of the moment. that are surrounding this. Walk us through at this point what we know about the sequence of events. How did this unfold as you understand it? It really starts before jazz has been cleared to land when there is a previous departure, United 2384, that aborted to take off

and had to return back to their gate due to a warning light. And as they were taxing back to their gate, they declared an emergency because there was odor in the cabin and was actually making the flight attendants ill. And the gate was not available for them to return to. So that's why they requested assistance.

And that's why the Port Authority fire apparatus were dispatched to provide assistance to United 2384. And surely thereafter is when Air Canada, 8646, is cleared the land on runway 4 out of the Guadia. Surely thereafter, Truck One and Company, which is the Port Authority crash fire rescue, requests permission to crash runway 4 at Taxway Delta. and when you listen to the voice recording, you can hear a little bit of hesitation in the controller's voice,

but he goes ahead and he clears truck one and company to cross from a four. Shortly thereafter, he recognizes the error, and he issues the clearance for truck one and company to stop. And you can hear how frantic he was in making that. decision. And also when you listen to voice returning, you can hear in the background an alarm going off. And my assessment, that is the alarm from the airport surface detective equipment that had picked up the fact that truck one was crossing the runway at the same time that Eric Canada 2686 was landing on the runway. Those are those beeps that we hear.

That's correct. And unfortunately, both the clearance to stop and the alert from the airport service detection equipment were not effective. And they collided on the runway. Air Canada was going still quite fast. They weren't even halfway or third of the way down the runway when this accident occurred. And it actually ended up pushing. The crash found rescue vehicle on its side and down the runway, and Air Canada came to a stop about 100 feet later and with significant damage to the front of the aircraft. There's a lot going on in all of those moments, and airports are obviously incredibly busy places.

As somebody who has been in the tower, it's interesting because we hear the same controller directing traffic on the ground and in the air. How unusual is that? That is unusual, and that's my assessment of it also, is that I listen to the voice recording, and it's the same voice that's working the aircraft on the ground, along with working the aircraft that are clear-to-land and cliff or takeoff. And even though this occurred on the overnight shift, or what's known as the midnight shift, when traffic volume is generally reduced in staffing levels or lower-term mass of traffic volume, my expectation would still be that there would be a separate controller working the ground traffic

and another controller working the landing and departing traffic. So that is a little bit concerning for me. And I think the very first question I would ask would be who is assigned to the control tower and where were they and what were they doing at the time of the event? Well, the pilots have been able to hear the controllers communications with that fire truck crew, giving the truck clearance to cross the runway? That is a possibility. It depends upon how the controller had the radios configured.

If they were configured that he was transmitting on both ground frequency and tower frequency at the same time, then Air Canada would have heard the clearance for the vehicle to cross the runway. The other issue is that we hear the controller say upwards of 10 times, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, to the fire truck crew to stop crossing that runway. Is it possible that that crew didn't hear the controller? That is a possibility that the crew on board crash fire rescue didn't hear the controller. We don't know yet what type of radio that crashed fire rescue was utilizing. But if truck won't...

One was using a handheld microphone in a speaker, which is typical for many fire apparatus. Then it's a possibility they did not hear the clearance to stop, stop, stop, because of the noise of the apparatus accelerating to cross the runway. However, if they were operating with headsets on, it's a possibility they could have heard. The U.S. Transportation Secretary described the two men who died. McKenzie Gunther and Antoine Forre as young pilots who were at the start of their career. And one of the passengers on the plane said to the Canadian press that those pilots likely saved his life by breaking extremely hard before impact. What do you make of that?

When would they have known that there was a fire truck that perhaps was crossing right in front of them? It's possibly that they visually saw the fire truck house was crossing because I'm sure the fire apparatus had It's emergency lights on in order to ensure visibility on the airport, especially at nighttime, and this did occur at night, and especially since they had been writing at the airport. And the runways at LaGuardia are shorter than at most commercial airports in the United States. So they would know they would have to break hard regardless of a vehicle on runway because they need to be able to stop. on the shore drumways out of Guadion. When we listen to that audio, one of the things we hear is the controller speaking with another pilot. And the controller is trying to explain what happened.

And then he says, I messed up. When you hear that, what goes through your mind? My heart goes out to that controller. Of course, my heart also goes out to those family and friends and acquaintances of those who killed in this collision, and those that are injured. But with the air traffic controller, again, I put myself in this position, and it's actually devastating

because as an aviation safety professional, that's the last thing you ever want to do or be involved in, and then to blame yourself for what occurs is devastating. And it's more concerning that that's 20 minutes after the event occurred, and that controller still has to continue to work. air traffic can be relieved. Perhaps one of the reasons why that controller was still on the job, and you and I have spoken

about this before, is because there's a shortage of air traffic controllers here in Canada, but also in the United States. Do you, again, we don't know the answers to all of this, but do you think that that may have played a role or a part here? I do not believe that staffing out of the Gaudit Tower is an issue in this instance. However, I do believe staffing in the control tower at the time of this tragic event is a factor. Those are two separate things. I mean, you're creating a distinction between those two.

You're saying that there's not a staffing issue at LaGuardia, but particularly in this moment you think there was a staffing issue. Exactly. On that shift at that time, my initial assessment is I would look at staffing. I guess just finally, one of the reasons, reasons why that's an important question is because people fly on a regular basis. You have incidents. Air collisions and fatalities are very rare, but when they happen, like the crash between

an helicopter and a plane in Washington, D.C. or that Delta flight that landed upside down on the tarmac in Toronto, people wonder whether that system, which is short of key members in the control tower, is under too much strain. What would you say to people who have that concern? I would tell listeners that in spite of these high-profile and tragic events, aviation is and remains the safest form of transportation, not just in the United States, but in all of North America. and you take a much greater risk by getting in your car, your taxi, or your Uber, and driving to the airport, and actually flying to and from the airport. Mike, I really appreciate your insight on this, and it's good to speak with you again. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your time. Thanks for having me. Michael McCormick is a former air traffic controller. He teaches at Embry-Riddley Aeronautical University.

We reached him in Daytona Beach, Florida. This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. at all time zones. You can also listen online at cbc.ca.ca slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.